In the automotive industry, ‘component’ targets are traditionally used to design chassis suspension modules. This involves applying loads directly to suspension hardpoints (attachments) to analyse attributes such as stiffness, strength and durability – at a component level.

It has been shown that a full understanding of the component targets - and the cascading method from the wheel to the component level - is key to avoiding an inefficient design. Achieving an efficient design is important for mass and cost reasons, increasing Gestamp’s competitiveness.

This paper introduces a new design approach which takes system level performance into consideration. The approach helps to challenge certain component level targets that may lead to an inefficient design. The method was successfully integrated into the design loop, using advanced tools provided by Altair (Optistruct and Motionsolve), with a combination of shape, size and topology optimisation.

An initial subframe design was obtained using component targets - stiffness and modal. This led to a relatively complicated design with a high part count. This attributes to a high cost for manufacture, assembly and problems due to the amount of welding (such as distortion). After analysing at a system level (dynamic vehicle handling and cabin noise level), it was shown that some component targets do not impact on the system performance - and the cascading method was not suitable. The design was then re-optimised using system level targets and the crucial component level targets – neglecting any that do not affect system performance. This new approach led to a 27% mass reduction of the subframe and hence an associated cost reduction.

Speakers

Mr. Zidane Tahir,
Chassis design CAE engineer ,
Gestamp – Chassis

A study on DOE of tubular rear axle twist beam using HyperStudy

In terms of the compliance with new legal requirements and reduction of greenhouse gas effect , automotive industry focuses on weight reduction of vehicle components. Furthermore, manufacturers studies on new concept designs, processes and new generation materials without compromising the safety of the vehicle components. The optimization tools take up significant place in the automotive industry to analyze feasibility of parts quickly due to competitive market requirements. Furthermore, Hyperstudy offers a solution for rapid DOE opportunity in the product development cycle, minimizing optimization challenges and also costs.

In this study, DOE methodology is used in order to optimize tubular rear axle twist beam which meets forces from ground to car body and belongs to semi-independent suspension system by using Hyperstudy.

Speakers

Metin Çalli,
FEA Responsible, COSKUNOZ A.S. R&D Department

Development of body structure concepts for electric
vehicles using the topology optimization for global
load pathfinding

By the strict discussions regarding energy saving and the goal to reduce CO2, there is a keen demand for light designed automotive structures and the development of electric vehicles. To achieve these goals, a comprehensive method for urban vehicle concepts with electric powertrain and their necessary vehicle structures is presented. The dimensions and packaging of the presented vehicle is based on demands of a future urban vehicle with space for four occupants including baggage, steerable front system wheels and a rear axle including an electric powertrain. In the geometric design phase of the method the vehicle design space is analyzed for global load path with the help of topology optimization (OptiStruct). The load paths are then clustered into different shapes. Concepts for new body in white structures are derived from the results.

Speakers

Marco Münster,
Research Assistant, DLR Institute of Vehicle Concepts

Developing Commercial Vehicles Inspired by Nature

As Germany's largest independent engineering partner to the worldwide automotive industry, EDAG is continuously seeking for new technologies and innovative processes to streamline vehicle development. EDAG has a profound expertise in integrated development and the optimization of vehicles, production facilities, derivatives, and modules. To meet fuel efficiency and emission reduction goals, structurally efficient lightweight designs are demanded in the development of passenger cars and commercial vehicles alike. To fulfill customer demands and to deliver lighter and yet fully functional and validated components in shorter time, EDAG is leveraging its engineering knowledge to combine state-of-the-art computer aided engineering tools, in this case Altair's OptiStruct, with new production technologies such as additive manufacturing. OptiStruct enabled the EDAG engineers to design lightweight and, by being inspired by nature, yet stiff structures of a cabin and a chassis. The components were then manufactured using additive manufacturing methods. To find the optimal solution for the final design the engineers later also conducted multi-physical optimizations, combining strength and crash demands of the vehicle, using an equivalent linear approach. The entire development and manufacturing process for the cabin and chassis structures will be subject of this presentation, showing how a combination of topology optimization and additive manufacturing leads to lighter and stiffer products. The project is a prime example of how mature CAE technology can be adjusted and used in combination with new manufacturing methods to introduce revolutionary structural enhancements within the transportation sector.

Speakers

Andreas Pfeiffer,
Development Engineer, EDAG

Conceptual Studies of the Lightweight Vehicle Structure for the L7e Vehicle Class by the Use of Optimization Process at OptiStruct Environment

The modern vehicle development process is driven by many factors. Recently due to the cost competition between the vehicles manufactures and even more restricting emissions normative, some factors like time-to-market and lightweight design dominate the development process. Searching for the advantage solutions the engineers design a new structure by the different approach and methods, e.g. optimization, fast concept modeling, morphing, etc.

In the frame of this lecture the part of conceptual design process at OptiStruct for an alternative driven (full electric) L7e vehicle class structure will be considered. The structure relevant load cases for the topology optimization running on the three-dimensional finite element mesh like bending, torsion, forces of suspension parts and crash loads will be shown. Moreover, the modeling technique and the operative clues of topology optimization process (e.g. usage of OSSmooth) as well as the application of compliance as objective optimization function and Inertia Relief will be presented. The common fundamental structural elements for various type of the vehicle structure architecture will be depicted. Furthermore, the possible interpretations scenarios of topology optimization results with the use of fundamental structural elements of vehicle structures will be shown.

TThe shortening of the current development cycles for commercial vehicles puts a higher focus on virtual testing compared to physical testing. At the same time, more items are subject to testing requirements in order to increase the quality of the vehicles and new markets introduce new requirements on the same vehicles. All these factors increase the demand for simulation at Scania along with the expressed goal to integrate virtual simulation into the product development cycle much more explicitly than before.

In order to meet the new demands for both more accurate and also a higher number of simulations, the chassis simulation department has looked into updating the assembly tool that started to be developed, together with Altair, in 2006.

The new tool has been developed together with Altair since the end of 2013 with the expressed goal to use a lot of the new core functionalities that are available within the HyperMesh software of today and keep the customisation to a minimum. This presentation is aimed to present the current status of the tool and some of the challenges that are still ahead of us.

The Airbus airframe design process has considerably evolved since 20 years with the constant improvement of numerical simulation capability and the computational means capacity. Today the size of Finite Element Models for aircraft structural behaviour study is exceeding the boundary of airframe components (fuselage section, wing); for the A350, a very large scale non-linear model of more than 60 million degrees of freedom has been developed to secure the static test campaign. This communication will illustrate the partnership with Altair and the use of Altair products for the creation and verification of very large models at Airbus. It will deal with: - Geometry preparation - Meshing - Property assignment - Assembly - Checking More generally, numerical simulation will play more and more a major role in the aircraft process, from the development of new concepts / derivatives to the support of the in-service fleet. Then, this presentation will also state the coming needs regarding model creation tools to cope with Airbus strategy.

The use of HPC in optimal design of TRB lightweight vehicle components

The integration of Altair HWUL into the Mubea TRB Optimization process speeds up development cylces and enables the CAE engineer to get a greater insight into the function of a product. With the use of Hyperstudy in combination with HPC ressources Mubea is able to design better products in less time.

Speakers

Niklas Klinke,
CAE Engineer, Mubea Tailor Rolled Blanks GmbH

Automated FEM Description Report

For each deliverable FE-Model a FEM description report needs to be generated. Since this document contains always the same type of information, it is an ideal candidate to automate the creation of this report. Based on the Hyper Report Tool from Altair, RUAG Space and Altair developed a tool to automatically generate the FEM Description Report. The tool requires the HyperMesh data base and the output files from FEM checks as inputs. Together with the tool template, guidelines are provided on how the data base needs to be set up, such that the report can be created automatically. The main structure of the FEM Description Report is dependent on the assembly structure of the HM data base. The following features are generated specifically in the RUAG tool: Picture with main coordinate system

Pictures with boundary conditions

Numbering range per assembly

Material and property tables

Pictures of the assemblies generated using a macro which searches automatically for the best view orientation with associated property labels

Pictures with attached units and associated unit labels

Mass break down table per units

Mass break down table per assembly (without units)

FEM checks results read directly from FEM output. The template can easily be adapted to specific project needs. The tool accelerates the process of writing the FEM Description report. The biggest time saving is achieved with document updates

Speakers

Teresa Pagano,
RUAG Schweiz AG

License Monitoring: from Manual Process to Automation with SAO

Nowadays solver license is the limiting factor of high scale calculations. Subsea 7 France took the opportunity to set up SAO for its new HPC applications licenses monitoring. SAO is now used to monitor licenses consumption of 5 applications inside and outside the HPC and demonstrates capabilities to replace historical scripts used for reports.

Speakers

Christophe Chanteur,
Engineer, Subsea 7

Drilling grid Alternative with 3D Printing

Due to recurrent lack of on time delivery of Drilling grid (made of a 2cm thick aluminium pad), 3D printing can potentially propose an alternative enlightened solution in 3D printing (topology optimization).

Speakers

Sébastien Haudrechy,
Engineer, Airbus Group Aerospace

Development of a topological optimised Hinge Arm through combination of ALM- and investment casting processes

Since 1974 TITAL GmbH manufactures high quality castings from aluminium and titanium alloys solely according to the lost wax process, mainly for the aerospace industry. The advantage of this process, besides its high dimensional accuracy and excellent material consistency, is the optimised use of material as this process enables the implementation of complex geometries such as undercuts etc. Because of this, topological optimised designs can be realised with nearly no limitations. This is possible because of the use of lost patterns and lost molds. For prototypes and small production batches such patterns are built using ALM-processes as SLS- or SLA-parts. The combination of topology optimisation, generative manufactured RP-models and the investment casting process enables the designer to realise operational prototypes at maximum flexibility without loss of quality. Further advantages of this combination are the feasible part sizes, as well as the unrestricted usability of such parts because of the well-established and approved processes. As a case study the development of the Hinge Arm for the Chinese passenger aircraft COMAC C919 will be presented, which has been topological optimised with the support of Altair Engineering GmbH in Munich (Unterschleißheim).

An engine pylon holds the engine to the wing and ensures multiple others functions: aerodynamics, structure and systems. Moreover, it is designed to prevent a fire in the engine area from spreading to the wing. These multi-functions make the global pylon architecture design highly complex. Existing designs reach their limits regarding the aircraft performance requirements, with ever more powerful, bigger and hotter engines. Thus, the technological breakthrough becomes necessary to achieve better performance.

In the present work, we propose a new concept based on Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) process which eliminates many conventional constraints from the manufacturing process and can produce complex, precisely designed shapes.

One objective of this work is to demonstrate the numerical feasibility of topology optimisation of large-size (5 m long, 0.83 m width and 1.19 m in height) and highly complex architecture design of an aeronautical structure.

The results show that a significant mass saving, more than 20%, can be achieved even with heavily constrained structure in terms of stresses, dimensions, interfaces, systems, etc. Furthermore, this study highlights benefits in the parts number which dropped by 97%.

Note that the existing engine pylon is made mostly of Titanium and Steel materials but for the topology optimisation a single material, Inconel 718, was chosen due to its best thermal and mechanical properties.

In order to ensure aerodynamic function, obtained organic shape structure is covered by custom-made cowls.

1/8 scale model is 3D printed by INITIAL company, using plastic material, can be exposed during the Altair Technology Conference.

Speakers

Abdelkader Salim,
Innovation Engineer, SOGECLAIR Aerospace

Light Engineering by Bionic Additive Manufacturing

Due to its high geometrical freedom additive manufacturing technologies offer a significant potential for lightweight applications, especially in the field of aviation.

Yet, process specific restrictions and guidelines for the design, especially for metallic lightweight structures, are only marginally spread. Addressing these shortcomings the presentation will show a holistic design approach for Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM). The presentation includes an overview over a selection method for parts suitable for additive manufacturing, lightweight design approaches as well as examples for functional and cost optimal design for LAM. An overview over future manufacturing solutions and parts will be presented.

The objective of this study was to reduce weight of the carbody of a train developed by the company Stadler Altenrhein AG. The weight reduction activity was executed on an end coach of the train. The reduction of weight was mainly focused on the rear part of the end coach since the rear passenger part is later used as a template for designing all mid coaches of the train. Thus, a significant weight saving in the rear would have larger effect on the weight of the complete train.

Altair Engineering was commissioned to assist this weight saving activity. Since the train was in the later stages of development, the activity was focused on optimizing the thicknesses of the extrusion profiles of the carbody. The optimization was subjected to a number of constraints, some coming from limitations concerning manufacturing and others concerned performance targets for the carbody. Most significant from manufacturing was a number of relationships between allowed thicknesses within one single extrusion profile which had to be satisfied. The performance constraints included limitations of stresses and certain displacements as well as a target value for the lowest Eigen-frequency.

With an iterative approach to consider more and more of the constraints, the optimization was build up and tested to finally produce results which decrease the weight and especially the force onto the rear bogie frame, together with meeting the requirements.

The weight saving activity finally generated a potential saving of 13 % of the weight of the extrusion profiles, in which 58 % of the generated weight potential affected the rear part of the end coach.

Speakers

Matthias Brücker, Stadler

Design of railway carbodies and welded subassemblies based on numerical optimization

Railway vehicles, as many other modern products become continuously larger, more sophisticated as well as more cost-intensive. This is necessary to fulfil rising expectations regarding passenger comfort and travelling speed, strict safety requirements and power consumption limitations. Meeting all technical requirements within short lead time and boundaries, defined by multiple international standards, forces the application of effective engineering approaches. Numerical structure optimization has been recognized essential for the marketing success within the carbody unit of Bombardier Transportation.

Optimization based development assures not only the structural integrity of our products, but also their lowest possible mass and costs.

According to the development stage, different optimization approaches are being applied. Preliminary concepts are supported through unconstrained topology, where critical load paths are being investigated and first layouts developed. Additionally, parameter optimizations are performed, providing the basis for further sensitivity studies.

Mass reduction of single assemblies is led by manufacturing constrained topology optimization. In further development stages, emerging local structural issues can be solved by the means of shape optimization processes.

The latest internal research project of Bombardier Transportation focuses on explicit implementation of the optimization into the design approach. According to that, the adaptation of the Altair C123 process is being verified for a lightweight metro carbody. Further developments aim at the processing of fatigue weld loads within the optimization.

Numerical optimization already affects the design and development of Bombardier Transportation products. Focusing on the integration of Altair’s optimization tools in the development process, will help to meet the challenges of today’s competitive railway vehicle market.

FEKO is a high frequency electromagnetic simulation tool which was developed over the last 25 years. Through the acquisition of EM Software & Systems by Altair in 2014 FEKO is now part of the Altair HyperWorks solver portfolio.

The presentation will introduce the area of CEM (Computational Electromagnetics) with its various applications. The spectrum of different solvers in FEKO for different applications is discussed (like high frequency ray optical methods for electrically large problems and full wave methods for smaller structures). After a brief review of the FEKO user interface components, the main part of the talk will be devoted to application examples from key industries. These include for instance antenna design, antenna placement, radome modelling, radar cross section analysis, bio-electromagnetics, and various aspects of electromagnetic compatibility (cable harness analysis, coupling, shielding) from industry sectors like automotive, aerospace, marine, communications, energy, or healthcare.

A coupled Electromagnetic-Mechanical analysis of next generation Radio Telescopes for the SKA

This work considers the design of large and complex receivers used in the field of radio astronomy, e.g. for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project. The purpose of this work is to consider a coupled simulation where the electromagnetic analysis, performed with the computational electromagnetic software package FEKO, is enhanced by the structural analysis offered by HyperWorks products such as HyperMesh and Optistruct. External influences such as gravity, wind-loading and thermal properties will be taken into account. This will enhance the electromagnetic simulation results, thereby aiding designers to mitigate these environmental effects.

Speakers

Dr. Danie Ludick,
Postdoctoral researcher, Stellenbosch University

Topological optimization in early development phases of the A6 launcher

Topological optimization is used in early development phases to validate design concept in terms of mass, surfluxes aggressiveness, stiffness.

Application to early concepts of A6 aft bay, to be designed taking into account a maximum allowable surflux at top interface.

JET supports the detailed sizing of metallic and composite aircraft structures. It provides an efficient, reliable and traceable work-flow for strength stability analysis to support fast sizing as well as stress and qualifications tasks. JET framework brings together verified strength and stability handbook methods (HSB, Mil-Handbook) with the input data from validated material data and the finite element results under one roof.

To be generally independent from software vendors, JET only needs ASCII input and output data which is easy to edit with standard software. To increase efficiency, to reduce mistake probability and to provide an advanced usability, Hypermesh graphical user interface were developed and linked by Altair´s process manager.

Speakers

Stefan Boehnel,
Stress Engineer, Airbus Helicopters

Strength- and Stability Analysis with STRENGTH2000(R)

In April 2015 Airbus Defence & Space joined the ALTAIR Partner Alliance Program in order to offer STRENGTH2000® to the ALTAIR Customers.

STRENGTH2000® analyzes the reserve factors and supports the detailed sizing of metallic and composite aircraft structures. It provides a very efficient and traceable workflow for strength- and stability-analysis in order to support fast sizing studies as well as check stress and qualification tasks. The presentation will give an short overview about STRENGTH2000® and will show the analysis of a rear fuselage bulkhead of a future UAV. The first step of the analysis process is to perform a Finite-Element analysis of the fuselage considering all structural design cases and to import the results into STRENGTH2000. Furthermore a CAD-Model of the bulkhead is used to provide the geometric sizes of the frame webs and stiffeners. The design features to be analyzed and the corresponding analyses methods are then selected within the GUI. After assigning the material properties and allowables, the reserve factors are calculated for the selected strength- and stability criteria. The presentation will also show additional features, e.g. how the load distribution can be visualized and the analysis can be re-run for a new set of load cases.

Speakers

Jürgen Grygier,
Stress Engineer, Airbus Defence & Space

Fatigue Analysis of a Pressurized Aircraft Fuselage Modification using Hyperworks and StressCheck

Fatigue Analyses of modifications on pressurized aircraft fuselages are both necessary and tedious. Using the Hyperworks software suite and StressCheck, RUAG has developed a fatigue analysis method which streamlines the process from the creation of the spectrum up to the detailed analysis of selected fastener holes and delivers results quickly and efficiently.

This method was then used to certify the installation of two large windows in the floor of a single engine turboprop A/C for aerial survey applications.

Speakers

David Schmid,
Manager Structural Analysis, RUAG Schweiz AG

Weight saving potential of thermoplastic unidirectional composites in the passenger door of a car

Future CO2 emission regulations for cars, like a reduction of CO2 of 30% by 2021, can only be achieved by reducing the energy required to propel car or making more efficient use of the energy available. The first can be achieved by reducing the weight of the car and the second by improvement in engine technology and/or new drive concepts. Composites show high stiffness and strength over weight ratio's when compared to steel and aluminum grades, enabling high weight saving potentials. One of the most important draw backs is their use in high volume production with competitive system cost. On the other hand thermoplastic compounds reinforced with "short" glass fibers shaped into injection moulded parts have established themselves, on the inside and outside of the car. A car door is proposed making use of thermoplastic unidirectional composite, the optimal form for maximum weight saving vs cost. When combining this material with classic injection moulding materials and techniques, new design concepts can be developed suitable for high volume production using existing assets with constant quality and maximum weight saving. The realistic weight saving potential of these types of material and production combinations has been evaluated on a passenger door of a car. State of the art CAE driven design methods are used to derive a robust passenger door structure with minimal weight that matches or surpasses the mechanical (static & crash) performance of a comparable steel door design.

Speakers

Harold van Aken,
Director, Code Product Solutions

Modeling of a Fiber Reinforced Plastic Beam – Development of the Accurate Methodology for Modeling Failure with Digimat

At DuPont, customers developing components made of glass-reinforced plastic materials are supported via integrative FEA run with Digimat®. The anisotropic behavior of the material requires accurate non-standard approach. Thus, multi-scale material models capturing nonlinear, strain-rate dependent and anisotropic characteristics, as well as failure models, are built and calibrated on a short fiber reinforced plastic beam. The injection molding process of this composite beam is simulated to extract fiber orientation information. The material laws and orientation information are coupled in a single finite element analysis to predict the performance of the injection molded composite beam under a dynamic three point bending load. Stiffness and strength comparisons between numerical and test results are carried out to validate the finite element modeling methodology and tools used.

The thermostamping process of thermoplastic composites can be analyzed with simulation software. In addition to the optimization that can be brought to process (defects, raw material quantity …), the main interest is to integrate results from process into the performance simulation.
This article presents an approach to simulate thermostamping of thermoplastic composites (PA) with HyperForm.

The material law is identified from Bias test trials, then, the simulation is performed by HyperForm with the solver Radioss or Ls-Dyna. Fiber orientations (for non-linear anisotropic behavior) and defects (global wrinkles, and wrinkles in the thickness, area with failure risk, thickness variation…) are identified and mapped on structural mesh for mechanical simulation.
Based on this approach, several test/simulation comparisons were performed on both static and dynamic. They demonstrate the necessity of considering the process phase, especially for complex geometries.

Regarding advanced application for such simulation tool: Faurecia Automotive Exterior is developing technologies to produce one-shot visible parts (CFRT thermostamping + overmolding injection in one step). This case study is the most challenging application we are working on. Combining thermostamping simulation and one-shot process brings benefits to both sides thanks to cross results on complex application.

Globaly, to improve the prediction of this simulation tool, next steps are the computation of local density; the consideration of thermal exchanges with the mold during the production process; the modelization improvement of boundary conditions during process (woven holding …, frames…).

For fiber reinforced automotive parts the consideration of anisotropic material behavior is required to receive reliable results. In the scope of this fact a procedure is described how to consider these effects in terms of process-structure interaction and how to achieve possible benefits such as weight reduction and shorter development cycles. The procedure is outlined with practical applications from company Valeo Ligthing Systems and another industrial partner projects that are currently still in progress.

Speakers

Sascha Pazour,
CAE Engineer, PART Engineering GmbH

Exploring the capabilities of the tight integration of HyperWorks and ESAComp

More than 3 years ago RUAG Space started to look into ways how the very powerful meshing and post-processing capabilities of Altair HyperWorks could be combined with the advanced composite failure analysis methods provided by the ESAComp software from Componeering. RUAG’s vision behind this idea was to streamline the time consuming composite analysis process by a tight integration of the two pieces of software, thus eliminating as much as possible unnecessary breaks in the data flow. Both Altair and Componeering carefully listened to RUAG’s needs and eventually it was decided to make a common effort in providing step by step the requested functionality. The initially slow process accelerated considerably when Componeering joined the Altair Partner Alliance in 2012. Today the bi-directional interface between HyperWorks and ESAComp is considered mature enough to be challenged by a demanding real world use case: the dimensioning and verification of the load carrying structure of the MetOp-SG satellite (Meteorological Operational Satellite - Second Generation). The presentation will focus on how HyperWorks and ESAComp were used to set up the finite element model, to run the quasi-static and dynamic load cases and to evaluate the results. It will be shown in which way HyperWorks and ESAComp can support the process, what the benefits of a tight integration are and which limitations still exist.

Numerical simulation becomes increasingly strategic to design innovative products and to set up their manufacturing processes, reducing simultaneously development costs and time to market while increasing quality and reliability.

To support this evolution, SILKAN develops a platform for the integration of various types of simulation software, named BUILDERTM.

BUILDERTM is an efficient, innovative and scalable simulation-based platform designed to deal with the increasing use of complex numerical simulations applied to part design, system design or manufacturing processes.

The principal objectives of this platform are to:

Promote and structure the use of simulation

Standardize, parameterize and automate simulation processes.

Capture and re-use the best practices.

Facilitate coupling between different simulation levels and tools.

Improve collaboration across different project teams.

Facilitate access to simulation means for the uninitiated.

Accelerate design and production cycles.

Democratize the use of optimization and reliability procedures and better control manufacturing processes and failure risks.

An application example using BUILDERTM is addressed in this paper. It deals with the robust design of a composite UAV wing. The associated simulation workflow includes two principal steps.
During the first step, Matlab is used to estimate aerodynamic loads applied to the wing when as a function of flight parameters: air flow speed, angle of attack of the wing and aileron deflection angles. A Design of Experiment (DoE) is built by varying the flight parameters in order to cover all the flight domain of the UAV.

The aerodynamic loads thus obtained are then injected into OptiStruct to estimate Tsai-Wu failure criteria for the composite material. An efficient surrogate model is then built from the obtained Tasi-Wu criteria and covers the entire flight domain. Finally to conclude this first part, a failure probability , based on Tsai-Wu criteria, is estimated using the produced surrogate model.

In the second step the following optimization problem is defined using some design variables
of the wing (essentially thicknesses of composite layers of the wing):

Wing Mass is calculated by Optistruct, and being evaluated using the step1.
An evolutionary algorithm implemented into Dakota is used to perform this surrogate-model -
based optimization.

The set up, parameterization and automation of this complex simulation workflow is
facilitated and achieved through the use of the BUILDERTM platform. The combination of
different software at different levels of the workflow is also made accessible by the use of
BUILDERTM.

The engineering challenges according to the pedestrian safety requirements have an important impact on the vehicle development time line and on vehicle design. The different pedestrian safety regulations that a vehicle has to fulfill (legal (ECE, GTR…) or consumer (EuroNCAP)) represent a high number of impact points that have to be defined depending on the regulation protocol. For each impact point, a FEM simulation has to be performed in order to evaluate the overall pedestrian protection performances. The integration of this process into an innovative virtual prototyping method needs a CAE tool allowing the automatic definition of the impact points and the automatic generation of ready-to-run FE models for impact simulation. Moreover, pedestrian requirements have a direct influence on vehicle design. That’s the reason why, an automatic definition of the impact points based on CAD design surfaces is a key to allow engineering judgment and design changes in the early phase of the vehicle development. The new HyperWorks Pedestrian Impact Tool, developed by Altair Engineering in cooperation with the Ford of Europe Pedestrian Protection Team, offers a perfect solution to these challenges. During the presentation, an overview of the tool capabilities will be given as well as results of an application on a Ford vehicle model.

Speakers

Dany Tapigue,
Engineer, Ford Werke GmbH

Simulation Integration into an advanced project for safety child seat

The design of the Child Restraint Systems (CRS) integrates many constraints from more severe safety requirements to weight reduction involving the need to improve ease of use. This paper presents the design approach by simulation to define a new CRS concept. The first part is an overview of the conceptual phase based on the topologic optimization integrating the linearization of the crash load cases. The second part is consecrated of the crash simulation to validate the concept.

Speakers

Sylvaine Pormenté,
Mechanical simulation Engineer, Dorel

Development of an innovative Crash-element for an automotive drive shaft

IFA Rotorion ranks among the largest manufacturers of drive shafts in the world and is one of the top 50 enterprises in Germany’s automotive supply industry.

An important part of a recent automotive drive shaft development was the creation of an innovative crash tube concept. An important aspect of the drive shaft is the compatibility with the vehicles’ crash concept. Simulation driven engineering was a key aspect of the product development to cut down costs and time as well as to ensure a robust solution.

Initially a validation of the explicit simulation model in Altair RADIOSS using crash test results of an existing design was carried out. This allowed fine tuning of the non-linear material law in order to ensure accurate predictions for the new concept to be developed. Due to the highly non-linear behavior of the crash element a meta-model based approach was used for optimization of the design. Therefore a Design of Experiment using a space-filling test plan was conducted in Altair HyperStudy initially. In the DoE the shape of the crash tube concept as well as the tube thickness was varied in order to meet the required performance attributes. Due to the complex failure mechanisms a reasonable FE-model quality had to be ensured. This was guaranteed by an automated process including the variation of the shape in a parametric CAD-model, automatic meshing and model setup in HyperMesh and a non-linear analysis in RADIOSS. Using the DoE results a meta-model for an efficient response-surface based optimization was created. The outcome of this study was an optimized design which fulfilled all requirements at minimum weight. To ensure a robust design studies to identify the optimal position for a predetermined breaking point were additionally carried out.

The prototype design was then evaluated on a crash test bed and all targets of the performance attributes were met. This proofed the quality of the underlying process and conduced significantly to the success of the drive shaft development.

The investigations described here are a corollary of the unstable behavior of crash-simulations due to minor changes in the model. As a consequence the received simulation results become in some way unpredictable, whereby the causes can be various: e.g. modeling failure, contact issues, numerical instabilities, physical instabilities, etc.

Being able to still fulfill the demands of creating robust models new processes and techniques are needed allowing the engineer to improve his model. One such process will be described which especially considers production tolerances for the robustness investigations.

The applied analysis methods rely on a toolset to analyze models by means of visualizing the maximum variation of scatter itself and computing scatter-modes for selected parts of interest. Latter computations are based on the principle component analysis (PCA), and deliver new virtual crash results representing the most extreme geometrical shapes of the scatter-modes. This improves and speeds up the process of identifying scatter causes.

For illustration a publically available application case is analyzed by means of robust design of the crash model. Therefore 25 simulation runs were performed based on the deployed process and analyzed with the above mentioned methods. As an outcome major scatter sources are found. Approving the software based prediction exemplary design adaptations lead to a significant reduction of scatter. The described mathematical methods are part of the software DIFFCRASH.

Working with sets of simulations the compression of these becomes more important. Therefore an overview and perspective of the current compression methods of FEMZIP is given as well as a prospect regarding upcoming compression of sets of simulations.

Speakers

Dominik Borsotto, SIDACT GmbH

Analysis of complex system with fluid-structure interaction analysis

In order to optimize complex systems as active dampers or hydraulic tappets, it is very important to generate mathematical models which are able to analyze phenomena of fluid structure interaction. For this reason some multi-physic models are generated with Radioss and Acusolve in order to study these components.

Speakers

Marco Morone,
CAE Manager, Altran

COMPLETE DESIGN PROCESS OF A ROOFTOP WIND TURBINE AS A PART OF ISTANBUL COURTHOUSE RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT

As EIA indicates, about 6% of the transmitted electricity is lost during transmission and distribution phase. Production of electricity where it is consumed plays an important role in lowering these losses and infrastructure costs. In order to supply the electricity of the Istanbul Courthouse, an 800kW setup renewable energy project, which micro-wind turbines and solar panels would be set up on the roof of the building, was initiated. In order to analyze the wind characteristics of building and near environment according to wind speed changes away from it, transient computational fluid dynamics analyses that have around 12 million elements were solved using AcuSolve including turbulent atmospheric boundary layer assumptions. In addition to CFD analyses, wind data is collected from 37 points obtained from CFD results with 3-D ultrasonic anemometers distributed at the roof for one year, to obtain annual wind characteristics of whole building. After having an insight about the wind distribution a modified savonius wind turbine with rated power of 20kW was designed and efficient setup regions was obtained after engaging CFD results and measured 1 year wind data. Optimum aerodynamic geometry that will convert as much of the wind’s energy as possible to electricity was sought with the aid of AcuSolve. With the help of aerodynamic forces obtained from CFD analyses, thickness of the blades, shape of the blade supports and their thicknesses were found via Optistruct size, shape and topology optimization tools. Static analysis of the turbine frame was solved by Radioss. Vibration analysis of the turbine and rigid body motion controls of all actuators and moving parts were conducted using MotionSolve. After all the design steps are fulfilled, first prototype was manufactured. In order to verify the analysis results, vibration and stress measurements were carried out by Istanbul Technical University Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Strength of Materials Laboratory. Before transferring the turbine to the roof, a 30 million element-CFD analysis with two rotating frames that are on two gradual levels of the roof was solved in order to examine the effect of one turbine on the other. The prototype was then taken to the roof of the building to realize performance tests and measurements.

Simulating the behavior of a parachute in use during a fall is an issue rarely tackled. The precision demanded, and the complexity of the fluid/structure interaction, are the main challenges to these kinds of studies.

On the one hand, a porous fabric composed of several pieces sewn together under accurate standards has to be modeled. On the other hand, a highly turbulent and transient flow animates and interacts with the aforementioned fabric.

The ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian and Eulerian) method of RADIOSS allows considering, in one finite element, both a structural and a fluid portion. It is then possible to overcome the meshing difficulties due to the movement of the fabric in the air flow.

Not only the model set up led to studying the behavior of the fabric during a classic fall, but it also provided the stresses in each halyard and stitch, which are essential information for parachute designers. Knowing the geometry of a folded parachute fabric, the model could even predict and simulate its opening.

AVL software and related services support the entire range of virtual prototyping in the powertrain industry. Altair Engineering is used by a number of major automotive companies as their high-fidelity finite element analysis tool. The highest priority is given to the completion of the workflow for different use cases for strength and durability analysis of engine components as well as NVH analysis of engines and power units. All related simulation tasks are connected by specific interfaces to ensure reduction of overall workflow time and increase in project confidence. The dynamic behavior of engine components (crankshaft, connecting rod, piston, etc.) is simulated using AVL EXCITE as Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) tool and central software in the workflow. Each component of the crank train and the engine/power unit structure is considered as flexible structure, performing local vibrations as well as global motion. The components are coupled within the MBD tool using various non-linear joints like the elasto-hydrodynamic bearing model. The model setup and meshing is performed with Altair SimLab, which has special plugins fulfilling EXCITE mesh requirements like inserting kinematic couplings at journal/pin center nodes and defining retained nodes at predefined areas. The model reduction is performed with Altair OptiStruct using a very efficient multi-level eigensolver (AMSES). OptiStruct directly generates the flexible body input data (.exb) for AVL EXCITE, whereas the required specification data is just a single command in the input file. After the dynamic simulation in AVL EXCITE the transient results can be passed back to OptiStruct for post processing transient or frequency response analysis. OptiStruct will than calculate motion, stresses and strains whereas results can be passed directly to .h3d or .op2 file format for further fatigue or airborne noise analysis with e.g. EXCITE Acoustics. An overview of the workflows for the use cases strength and durability analysis as well as NVH analysis, together with the integrated FEA tasks and the interaction between the different analysis tasks is given in the presentation.

Car makers have to reduce consumption of vehicles and so, are continually looking for solutions to lighten components. For powertrain, components generally mean screwed assembly, contact and fitting interfaces, with different kind of loading to take into account (static and dynamic). Hence, we decided to apply with Altair assistance, a process of topology optimization on an assembly of gearbox housing in order to check its feasibility and efficiency. Several steps had to be solved from exhaustive identification of all mechanical constraints to execution of large models with Optistruct. By the end, the process has been defined and implemented on an existing gearbox and will be soon apply on the next one to design.

Stress and Durability Analysis of Threaded Connections in a Cast Aluminum Cylinder Block

Bolted connections involve sharp notched components that are therefore sensitive to fatigue loading. In internal combustion engines, the journal bearings of the crankshaft are supported by bearing caps which are bolted to the cylinder block. These threaded connections are a fatigue concern as cracking may be experienced on dynamometer tests of new engines. The critical element of this application however is not the steel studs rather the threaded bolt holes in the cast engine block. While the nominal stress concept is applicable to the fatigue design of studs, a local stress approach has to be adopted to assess the fatigue strength of threaded bolt holes.

This paper addresses the fatigue design of this kind of threaded connection. Initially alternate methods of FE modeling and analysis of threaded joints by the local approach are critically examined. The parallel development of a simplified experimental test system involving a threaded hole in cast AlSi7 is described and used to generate baseline fatigue data under known loading conditions. The fatigue behavior of the experimental system is then analyzed on the basis of alternate FE models and post processing approaches. Finally, recommendations for the accurate and computationally efficient FE modeling and durability analysis of threaded connections in cast aluminum cylinder block are outlined.

Speakers

Marco Bersella,
Engineer, TP Engineering srl

Gas turbine components design optimization with Hyperworks

HyperWorks is one powerful optimization tool used in ALSTOM Power, Thermal Services for improving cooling efficiency, lifetime and reliability of gas turbine components. Two examples are shown in this presentation:

Topology optimization of a turbine rotor heat shield to minimize the weight of this rotating component and the cost of selective laser melting manufacturing process.

In order to validate SLM (Selective Laser Melting) manufactured hot gas path rotating components in a gas turbine engine, one ALSTOM turbine rotor heat shield between nth and mth stages is selected. This SLM rotor heat shield is optimized to reduce SLM manufacturing time with lighter/hollow structure. The optimized component design did not reduce the thermal mechanical fatigue lifetime compared to the original one and the influence of the lighter SLM structure on clearance is negligible. Therefore, all design, lifetime and integration requirements of rotor heat shields are fulfilled.

TMF crack initiation at the bottom of one base fleet turbine rotor cooling air groove was found and redesigned. To extend the lifetime of the ex-service shaft, as determined with Alstom Design Guidelines, an optimization process was applied by using elliptic contour shape of the cooling air groove. The fatigue lifetime according to ALSTOM rotor lifetime requirement was fully achieved.
However, it has not been investigated whether the applied elliptic design shape is the global optimum or local optimum at this location in allowed design improvements. HyperWorks is selected to perform ‘shape optimization’ of the cooling air groove with given dimensions. The tool combines ABAQUS thermal and static stress analysis and ALSTOM in-house lifing program together to achieve further improvement of the TMF lifetime at the bottom of the cooling air L-groove. The results show that TMF lifetime is almost doubled by the shape optimization algorithm as compared to the design with elliptic contour within prescribed design space.

Experimental verification and finite element analysis of a sliding door system used in automotive industry

A sliding door system is used in commercial vehicles and passenger cars to allow a larger unobstructed access to the interior for loading and unloading. The movement of a sliding door on vehicle body is ensured by mechanisms and tracks having special cross-section which is manufactured by rollforming and strech bending process. There are three tracks and three mechanisms which are called upper, central and lower on a sliding door system. There are static requirements as strenght on different directions, rigidity for mechanisms, door drop off, door sag; dynamic requirements as high energy slam opening-closing and durability requirement to validate these products. In addition, there is a kinematic requirement to find out force values from door handle during manuel operating. In this study, finite element analysis and physical test results which are realized for sliding door systems will be shared comparatively.

Speakers

Caner Güven,
Analysis Engineer, Rollmech Automotive

Modeling of weight and vibration reduction using high performance LASD

This presentation demonstrates how to use Optistruct to predict the vibration levels of a floor pan and how to model Liquid Applied Sound Deadeners to reduce the vibrations with a minimum weight addition.

Evaluating Performance of Acoustic Components in Early Phases of Development

In today’s truck industry, the challenge is to reduce development time and cost. To succeed, it is asked to develop concepts right first time to limit as much as possible product modifications once the first prototype vehicles are tested. Simulation is an essential tool to achieve that.

Acoustic components such as floormats, porous trims or insulation felts are key components to drive the acoustic level in truck cabs.

It is of primary order to provide enough space for those components in the early phases of the project when main volumes are assigned to each module.
The method presented, using a Transfer Matrix Method implemented in the Alpha-Cell software, allows for simulating the acoustic insulation performance of acoustic component concepts. The short simulation time is key to iterate on many concepts, compare them and converge to the most suitable.
An extension of the method to model complete insulation panels made of several acoustic treatment definitions is then presented. This method can be used to identify weak parts.

The presentation will argue that the discipline and profession of Architecture currently exhibits features that are consistent with a phase of consolidation, subsequent to a paradigmatic shift in the way it was conceived and produced. Such features include an increase in inter-disciplinary collaborations both in projects and publications, a discernible shift towards establishing a historic continuum in methods of enquiry, systemic generation and dissemination of scientific knowledge, and a symbiosis between research, academia and practise. By tracing the immediate contemporary-history of computational design including that of practise-based research groups such as Arup Advance Geometry Unit, Fosters’ Smart Modelling Group, ZHA_CODE etc., the presentation will attempt to surmise the state of the art in computational design, and future directions in its pedagogy, practise and pursuit of technological progress.

Speakers

Shajay Bhooshan,
Associate, Zaha Hadid Architects

Structural analysis of the Baakenhafen Bridge and the optimisation of chosen elements

The following paper consist of two parts. The aim of the first part is to analyse the problem of thermal loads of steel skew bridges and the displacement caused by them. A 3-spanned steel road bridge named Baakenhafen West is being analysed. In the second part, an optimization of the primary beams of the structure was made. Thus was shown, that there was a possibility to reduce the steel tonnage of the bridge by keeping it safe to use.

Speakers

Julia Karasinska,
Engineer, BuroHappold Engineering

Fatigue Life from Sine-on-Random Excitation

Rotating machinery can be found in every industry: automotive, aerospace, energy, etc. The generated vibration environment is typically made of harmonic tones superimposed on background noise. Components mounted on rotating machinery must be designed to survive such mechanical environment over their entire service life. This presentation will concentrate on calculating the fatigue life from sine-on-random excitations using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). It is proposed to derive the statistical rainflow cycle histogram from a sine-on-random spectrum of stress or strain data and then use the appropriate material fatigue curve to obtain the estimated life. This new analysis is complementary to existing features such as SineDwell, SineSweep and (uni- or multi-axes) random PSD. It is part of extensive research work that includes the influence of sigma clipping or the effects of a high kurtosis.

Speakers

Frédéric Kihm,
Application Engineer, HBM-nCode

Random Response & Fatigue Optimization In The Frequency Domain For Large Automotive Systems Using CAEfatigue in Combination with OptiStruct and HyperStudy

Frequency based methods for random response and fatigue are becoming more widely used in the automotive industry. The use of PSD’s (Power Spectral Densities) coupled with system properties in the frequency domain (transfer functions) offers significant benefits over time based approaches in terms of analysis time, model size that can be handled, and most importantly, such methods facilitate the incorporation of optimisation techniques to minimise parameters like shell thicknesses, material properties, weight etc.

The overall analysis uses OptiStruct stress results as input to a CAEfatigue VIBRATION analysis with the optimisation being controlled using Hyperstudy and the results produced are then post processed in HyperView. This presentation will demonstrate the application of such an approach to an automotive full body system.

Better correlation of measurement data using Motion Solve and FEFMAT LAB virtual iteration Matching of locally measured data calculating excitations (input) based on MBS process (MotinSolve) to reach local measured data Using this process and the output of MotionSolve for a hybrid MBS- fatigue process

Simulation of an seaplane landing on a rough water surface using the RADIOSS multidomain method

Requirements for firefighting seaplanes are more severe than in common aviation. Special load scenarios should be accounted for which included, landing on water with waves, accumulation of water in tank, influence of water waves to engine rotor dynamics and many more. Nevertheless, even with these strict requirements, the working time limit of seaplane is usually set 5-10 times lower, compared to common airplanes.

Accurate evaluation of the structural safety of the seaplane fuselage should combine experimental and numerical approaches. Beriev Aircraft Company has developed such an approach to predict safety margins based on analysis of statistic data of natural experiments, component testing, and results of numerical simulations.

The RADIOSS Soft Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) method is used to simulate aircraft landings on a wavy surface to create a database which provides sectional forces and moments distribution along seaplane fuselage, stress and strain distribution in fuselage structure for certain range of landing velocities, landing depth, angle of attack, and water wave amplitudes and length. Results of simulations show good correspondence to test readings obtained on a real seaplane during the landing run. Further, the numerical results have been used to investigate structural behavior for load cases where the test data are not available.

To provide higher accuracy, the fuselage was meshed with a fine finite element mesh of 5-7mm. Water basin of 90 meter length is modeled with the SPH approach. Structural time step from fuselage elements is 20 times smaller than the time step provided by the SPH particles. Therefore, the RADIOSS multidomain approach is used to accelerate the simulation. The multidomain approach enables the simulation to be split into several time step domains where the simulation in each domain used its own time step. The multidomain approach reduced the simulation time by factor of 10 so a single simulation could be completed in 1- 2 weeks.

Speakers

Ivanov K.,
Director, Numerical Experiment Ltd.

Topological Optimization for the Design of UHPFRC Structures in Architecture

Today, concrete is the most frequently-used material on the planet after water, with a quantity of one cubic metre per person per year. Every second, 126 tonnes of cement are poured across the world, amounting to some 3.4 billion tonnes per year, or the equivalent of just over 14,000 Empire State Buildings. Over the three years from 2011 to 2013, China consumed 6.6 billion tonnes of cement, in other words more than the 4.5 billion tonnes used by the USA during the entire 20th century (Sources: USGS, Cement Statistics 1900-2012; USGS, Mineral Industry of China, 1990-2013). If we add to these figures the fact that production of cement by the clinkerisation process involves firing at temperatures of around 1,450 -1,500°C, it is not difficult to understand why the cement industry is one of the most polluting industries. Just like the construction sector as a whole, this industry faces many challenges today. Amongst these challenges are optimising the cement production process in the face of the growing cost of more sophisticated “raw materials” and their proven or potential harmfulness, or rethinking the supply chains and the product lifecycle to reduce grey energy, and lastly developing new construction methods. This last problem, in which architects have the most influence, should be envisioned beyond the usual constraints associated with buildings’ regulations as a great opportunity for the architectural discipline. This search for new approaches is at the heart of the works we are presenting in this lecture, oriented towards integrative computational and fabrication methods for the design and realization of three-dimensional concrete-based structures. Most of the actual innovative concretes devoid of aggregates should be considered as cement, a fact especially valid for the kind of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC or UHPC when no fibre is present) we used for some of the work we are presenting, nevertheless we will refer in this paper to the various cementitious materials by using the generic word “concrete”. After introducing a few contextual elements in the first part, the second part will present the results of research conducted at EZCT Architecture & Design Research from 2012 and 2015, starting with the design and realization of 3D spatial lattices made of concrete, before being extended towards the use of more specific topological optimization tools from Altair (and other tools from Hyperworks), including Inspire and Optistruct. As the presentation will demonstrate, these tools offers an incredible potential for the design of new architectural structure especially when coupled with novel materials as UHPFRC and novel fabrication techniques as 3D Printing, so that mindful and appropriate uses of present-day “high-tech” concrete can be rigorously identified.

Over the last few decades, the defogger of vehicles was increasingly used as an antenna for mobile reception of broadcast services. Ever since, the development of vehicular window antennas was a tedious and time consuming task, because the development procedure was subjected to an iterative series of measurements.

Due to enhanced computing power of workstations and server-systems, it is now possible, to calculate antenna structures including whole vehicle bodies in electromagnetic simulations. Especially for calculating the performance of antenna structures integrated into vehicular windows, the FEKO wind screen function became an indispensable tool for accurate simulations of real world scenarios. With comparable results in simulation and measurements, errors can be identified and fixed faster as ever before. The possibility to consider current flow, 3D directivity, antenna efficiency and further analyses additionally contributes to a significant improvement in the development process of vehicular window antennas. Recent comparisons of simulation and measurement results in a rear window antenna development project were confirming that simulative calculated predictions are in good correspondence to measurements of produced vehicular window antennas.

An important aspect of vehicle comfort is the silence of the brake system. Especially low velocity braking maneuvers are sometimes accompanied by heavy noise occurrences. Although these noise occurrences do not affect the brake system negatively with respect to braking performance they mostly result in customer insecurity. Therefore, most OEMs invest much time and money on developing silent brake systems. The presentation will illustrate the physical reasons behind such brake noise events. Practical methods for vibration damping will be discussed as well. Different analytical approaches for early estimation of noise potentials of brake systems based on the Finite-Element-Method as well as Multi-Body-Dynamics will be presented. Finally, future steps for the investigation of brake noise occurrences by analytical methods will be offered.

For years, the simulation tools conquered the car industry. Indeed, the request of creativity and the will to replace the physical testing allowed the development of the more and more sophisticated Techniques of simulation, so much at the level of the software as at the level of the computing power.

A serious bottleneck is exiting today to solve those typical large-scale numerical simulations with several nonlinearities (Large deformation, contacts, friction and plasticity...). The systems of equations can no longer be solved efficiently with standard numerical solvers simply because these implicit solvers are not scalable or very poorly.

To handle these engineers' problems, there are two Techniques mainly to solve them : Implicit and explicit methods.

The both Techniques seem in opposition by definition. The numerical integration of the equations with the implicit or explicit approach is fundamental in the choice of solvers, that's U-SHIN has adopted RADIOSS as the main solver in order to solve quasi-statics and naturally dynamics problems.

The performances on one hand of the hardware HPC capabilities available today and on the other hand, the scalability of RADIOSS versus implicit codes are incomparable in term of efficiency due to the numerical stability and their robustness. RADIOSS has many advanced technologies such (AMS, Multi-Domains, ..) and good parallelization to handle huge and complex FEA models. We deployed RADIOSS Massively in all our R&D center. Some applications will be presented.

Speakers

Ahmed EL ABIDI, CAE Manager & Senior Expert,
U-SHIN France SAS

Rail Seat Development using Dynamic Crash Simulation

Developing and validating a crashworthy rail seat to a contracted rail standard represents a real challenge: The seat has to be designed so that it is strong enough to withstand the load of occupants under a high acceleration into the seat structure, but soft enough to not cause serious injuries to an occupant impacting the seat from a neighbouring row of seats. It usually involves a high number of time consuming and costly physical tests. Transcal Rail together with Altair ProductDesign UK applied advanced Finite Element (FE) analysis, using Radioss HyperWorks, to develop and optimise the seat design to meet structural requirements and record injuries from fully representative instrumented dummy models.

The physical test set up is virtually replicated including correct dummy positioning and specifying the sled pulse curve as a prescribed motion. Crucially, it can be done prior to any materials being ordered or tools manufactured thus potentially eliminating a complete prototype testing phase altogether.

The FE model can be created with various degrees of complexity depending on the amount of available data defining the original design. This initial investment in creating a representative model will bear fruit in the ability to quickly highlight pitfalls, manage design updates and perform “what-if” studies during the development phase. This enables the structure to evolve into an efficient and robust design while significantly increasing confidence levels to pass the final validation physical test.

Speakers

Pierre-Edouard Rousseau, Altair,
on behalf of Transcal Rail

Optimization of Transmission Housings

GKN Driveline is the world’s leading manufacturer of automotive driveline components like CVJ Systems, AWD Systems, Trans Axle Solutions and eDrive Systems. The global acting company has 22,000 people at 56 facilities in 22 countries working in partnership with vehicle manufacturers to develop driveshaft and geared component technologies for the future.

For all transmission systems, the task of the development is to satisfy customer requirements which partly act against each other. Systematically separate and balance design parameters regarding durability, NVH and efficiency to achieve biggest benefit at acceptable cost level. These various requirements and demands leads to challenging optimization work. Traditionally this challenge has been determine using existing designs or ideas based on experience and testing using simulation after design to verify changes.

The introduction of numerical optimization methods has significantly changed the way of transmission development. Best concept design that meets design requirements replacing time consuming and costly design iterations. This presentation will show how GKN Driveline, has integrated optimization techniques showing examples of recent development.